Protect your family, your income, your home

This is the stage almost every consumer website puts at the end, after move-in. That's the wrong place. By then most people have run out of energy, money, and motivation to think about it, so they don't. Then they spend ten years uninsured while paying off the biggest debt of their lives.

The right time for the protection conversation is at the mortgage application stage, same time you're sorting the legal and survey work. Cover gets put in place to start before exchange, which is the legal moment you're committed to the purchase.

Start with the questions, not the products.

The four products, plainly explained

Life cover, pays a lump sum if you die during the policy term. Usually set to clear the mortgage. Decreasing term (which matches a repayment mortgage) is the cheapest option.

Critical illness cover, pays a lump sum if you're diagnosed with a defined serious illness during the policy term. Cancer, heart attack, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and others. Usually bought combined with life cover.

Income protection, pays you a regular monthly income (typically 50-65% of your salary) if you can't work due to illness or injury. The most under-bought product in the UK and arguably the most important. The State alone won't pay your mortgage.

Family income benefit, pays your family a regular monthly income (rather than a lump sum) if you die. Often cheaper than full life cover for the same family-protection effect.

Get the protection conversation done properly